Please Think about this! Read it more than once!

When the government of the United States of America decided that it would be a good idea to get the native Americans (Indians) to give up their land and hunting areas they tried all sorts of bribes and threats. In desperation, they even offered to buy the land from them.

They received the following response from one tribal leader named Chief Seattle:-

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How can you buy or sell the sky?

We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle on the water.

How then can you buy them from us?

Every part of the Earth is sacred to my people, holy in their memory and experience.

We know the white man does not understand our ways.

He's a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.

The Earth is not his friend but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on.

He kidnaps the Earth from his children.

His appetite will devour the Earth and leave behind a desert.

If the beasts were gone we would die from a great loneliness of the spirit, for whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children of the Earth.

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Chief Seattle uttered those words of great wisdom in the year 1854 ... compare them with what is happening in the world today.

Will we never learn?

A new Toy!

I have recently acquired a new camera and I thought I would celebrate with a couple of shots taken on the second day ... it can only get better!

Influential Films

22nd January 1879. A tragic reference to Isandhlwana. The Zulu War was in progress and on this infamous day the British Army suffered a humiliating defeat when, out of a total garrison of 1762 men, all died in battle against the Zulus apart from fifty-five Europeans and three hundred and fifty African Auxiliaries.
Elated by the victory a force of about four thousand Zulus carried on down the track to take the mission station at Rorke's Drift. A small force of soldiers was at their mercy and fought so bravely for fifteen hours, non-stop, that the Zulus withdrew.
An epic film was made starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine called "Zulu" which dealt with the aftermath of Isandhlwana and the gave a graphic account of the Defence of Rorke's Drift. Through seeing the film, I developed an interest in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and I have studied literature and lectures on the subject and found the whole episode interesting ... but futile.

I would like to hear from other people about a favourite film that has influenced their life in some way. I look forward to reading some good comments.

Time Wasted? ... I think not!!!

A couple of evenings ago I spent about three hours 'helping' to get a friend online to 'Talk Talk'.
We duly tried to set up the computer and the broadband (which had been working OK on another computer in the same room). After several false starts and cups of coffee we were getting nowhere as each time we tried to install the various bits of information we were being presented with different screens requesting more information.
As time went on we decided we needed help and, with permission from the user, rang customer services.
I know, I know, never ring customer services even if your bum is alight!
10p a minute to solve the problem ... small price to pay ... if you are actively talking to someone who is able to help. But 10p a minute just to punch in a few selections, only to be put in a queue and be fed only two records on a loop with a reminder that "Your call is in a queue and will be answered shortly" ... well that's not on. After twenty minutes (£2.00) we got a ringing tone! Then, as we got really excited the line went dead! AAAARGHHHH!!!
Back to trying it ourselves and we eventually got a message saying "You are connected at 2.2Mb/s". To prove it I pulled down my weblog (this one) and we were all suitably impressed. The young lady concerned said, "Right let me have a go". No connection. More coffee. Then we had another successful connection. Pulled down the weblog ... fine. Closed it all down and tried again. No connection.
At 10.45pm we called it a night.
Yesterday I thought I would try to see if there were any instances of similar happenings so I Googled "Talk Talk Complaints". www.weeklygripe.co.uk/arc44.asp came to the fore and I didn't believe what I was reading. I would say that there is no point trying to carry on with this installation. There are so many tales of disappointment, wasted time and money, horror etc not only with Talk Talk, but with Tiscali, Bulldog, BT Broadband and others.
I am with NTL/Telewest and have had no real problems in the three-years-plus with them. Thank goodness, I thought.
But in the Telegraph yesterday it appears that NTL is changing it's name to try to "draw a line under the complaints about its customer service department".
Back to the above mentioned website and I trawled through several more pages and found ONE reference from someone who had moved from NTL to go to Talk Talk only to immediately regret it and they have moved back again.
Please NTL, don't upset the applecart. stay as you are as I, for one, am more than happy with the service!

I am beginning to panic!!!

Do you remember when we used to go to the cinema and sit through about eighty-three minutes of nail-biting terror as Professor Frankenstein made, and lost control of, his 'creation'? When it was all over we emerged into the light realising that it was only a story. It couldn't really happen! Could it?

Today's headline in the Telegraph states "Scientists to mix cells of humans and cows". To me, this sounds like our worst nightmare. All to be done in the name of research. Something to do with stem-cells from which they can grow all sorts of other living cells.

British scientists have applied for permission to create embryos that are part human, part animal.

Two teams have submitted applications to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (?) to carry out experiments in which human eggs will be fused with rabbit, cow and goat eggs.

My first thought was this: If I am hoping to experiment in this field, who do I go to in order to get the all clear? Apparently the HFEA are the people to speak to.

Who are they? No idea ... so I had a look on the good old internet.

This is their response when I looked at their home page: -
"Welcome The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is a statutory body, created in 1991 under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990).
Our primary remit is to license and monitor UK clinics that offer IVF (in vitro fertilisation) and DI (donor insemination) treatments, and all UK-based research into human embryos. We also regulate the storage of eggs, sperm and embryos."

I read on and got more and more confused when the term 'chimeric' embryos cropped up. I looked up the word 'chimera' in one of my dictionaries and found this: -

chimera. (n) monster in Greek mythology with a lion's head, goat's body and a serpent's tail; bogy; wild or fanciful conception; chimerical (adj)

I read the rest of the article with trepidation and two professors told why they wanted to do this research, possible cures for spinal mucular dystrophy, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and the lack of human eggs being the reason for wanting to use animal eggs.

All very laudable but who will keep tabs on the odd 'maverick' scientist wanting to make a name for himself by doing his own thing.

Please, please read all you can and ask some vital questions. I have written this off the cuff and I may have missed the point entirely but please follow it up.

The only result that I can see would be to produce, through human and cow eggs, a clone of Buffalo Bill!

Well, well ... what a surprise!

I knew it would come sooner or later. An item on the lunchtime news confirmed that the 2012 Olympic bid seems to indicate that the final(?) cost is about £1bn short. Yes, one billion pounds shortfall. The reason? They forgot about the VAT factor in the calculations.
For crying out loud, how does a slip-up like that get overlooked when the bids are assessed. Have we learned nothing from the building cock-ups over the past four decades when large building projects have gone over budget?
The Thames Barrier? The Channel Tunnel? The Circus Tent (oops, sorry, The Millennium Dome)? Wembley Stadium? All of them costing more than estimated. All of them delivered late!
Another monetary burden to stick onto the tax-payer ... and it's no good the Government saying it won't be us facing the bill because it is always the tax-payer who pays!

I wish I could understand why these mistakes keep happening. I know that I was disappointed when London 'won' the Olympic Games purely because I, and not only me, knew that this was going to happen. Let's see what bullsh*t Blair and Coe come up with. The papers will be full of gung-ho, let's pull together and get the job done ... that'll be the day!

Will the last person to leave the country kindly turn the light out? ... on the other hand, why bother?

Let's hear it for ... the library!

Do you live fairly close to a public library?
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Do you think of a library as being a dusty, musty place where you spoke only in whispers?
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Do you tend to avoid the place because you think it will be full of 'academics'?
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Well, it's time you took the bull by the horns and paid a visit to see what the library has to offer.

For a start, you will need to join the library if you wish to take items home with you. Sorry, items is a technical term used in libraries. Quite simply items can be books, cds, dvds or, in some places, pictures!

I live near Twydall branch library which is manned or womanned by a great staff of librarians. They will help you with any problems and offer suggestions on how to use the facilities within the library service.

Most people will take books home.

I use the on-line facilities quite often because I sometimes think of facts that I want to follow up later and, if I wait until I get home, I'll have forgotten them. A quick nip into the library, ten minutes on the computer to send my thoughts home ahead of me, and it's done.
Although my computer is on-line at home I sometimes prefer to use the library terminals as it offers the opportunity to get out for a breath of fresh air and possibly expand my circle of acquaintances.

My wife reads books from the library regularly and uses the reservation service. If you hear about a book and/or author, see if it is on the library list. If it is they can get it to your branch quickly (in most cases) and you can then take it away.
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Apparently, the library now allows you to take up to thirty items maximum. There is no wheelbarrow service available to get it all home, though.

Use the library today ... or lose it tomorrow.

Coincidence ... or what!

Well, what about that? At last, Saddam Hussein has been found guilty of the minor crime arraigned against him and sentenced to hang.

How much 'capital' will George W Shrub make out of this, considering it is the mid-term election coming up on Tuesday?

Keep watching the press and the TV!

Now we are here

I love this time of year. Look at this 'website' and see how it all hangs together.

I love the way that nature has added a large droplet at each junction and then threaded a few small crystals to catch the light and, more importantly, catch your eye.

I don't think there is any more to say.

Let's Hear it for Backgammon!

Hello everyone.
Backgammon is my favourite board/dice game. It can be fast, furious and lots of fun, or it can be full of surprises and changes of tempo. When our younger daughter comes to visit, out comes the Backgammon set.
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I began to look for a site on the internet where I could play online and just over a year ago I joined in with a site whereby I could play people all over the world. The only problem was that it was very slow inasmuch as it sometimes took a couple of days between moves. Enjoyable as it was beating opponents in the States and losing to a lady from Iceland, I soon become disenchanted and dropped out.
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I recently found another site and joined in to play, as I thought, fellow backgammon players who enjoyed a nice friendly game but, no, they would start a game and suddenly a message would appear telling me they had now gone offline. I was playing someone in France when he/she wrote a message "un peu plus vite, svp". I tend to take my time (and there is no time limit in the official rules!) and felt that this person was not happy. However it turned out that the server was slow at that time. Apology forthcoming ... non! I have now dropped out due to refusals to play, with no explanation.
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I looked at another group where I played for a while last year only to find a warning that play is casual on part of the site and "cyber-sex is optional!".
Needless to say I decided against that one ... for now! (LOL)
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So it's back to playing on my own for the time being. Unless ...